A few highlights from the House-passed bill to fund military and diplomatic operations in Iraq and Afghanistan into next spring:
--Require intelligence officials [to] adhere to the Army field manual for interrogations; this requirement essentially would ban waterboarding. In this technique, a prisoner is strapped down and his mouth is covered with plastic or cloth. Water then is poured over his face. The prisoner quickly begins to inhale water, causing the sensation of drowning.
--Block new Bush administration regulations that would cut federal spending on Medicaid health care for the poor and disabled by $13 billion over the next five years.
Both the ban on waterboarding and the effort to block Medicaid funding cuts come at an opportune moment for this young man:
Now, we can all breathe a little easier - provided the bill survives the Senate. And a veto. Right.
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